laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Paul Torek) (09/27/83)
(for complicated political reasons involving who does, and does not get to post news, umcp-cs!dr_who has been gagged at umcp-cs. I am, however, perfectly willing to help Paul beat the system by posting articles from him until he gets his own system (prometh) up and ready to send news. If you want to reply to this, however, you had better send mail to allegra!umcp-cs!prometh!paul. While I will forward any mail for him that ends up here, the turn around time is not guaranteed to be fast -- laura) ******** begin forwarded article ************ The following is from Paul Torek. Send replies to ..umcp-cs!prometh!paul Whether or not the move into space can have a significant impact on the population problem depends on what you think "the population problem" is. Are there too many people on the earth? "Too many" for what? The very concept of overpopulation is an evaluative one; "over"-anything is bad, by definition. This is totally obvious and yet the point passed me by for a long time. So first of all, we need a definition of the optimal population before we can decide whether earth is over- or underpopulated. Kevin B. Kenny objects to defining the optimum population as the minumum needed to provide today's economies of scale; he suggests defining it as the maximum level that doesn't seriously degrade the quality of life. But, to state the obvious again, there is a question of *whose* lives are being considered here -- only those who are already living, or also those who we are debating over whether to bring into the world? There is a straightforwardly ethical question here, and my opinion is that the more people who are able to enjoy life here on earth (or anywhere else), the better. From this perspective, the expansion of the human species into space is great -- we could increase the human population of the universe drastically. If there are eventually millions of planets with billions of humans each, that would be fantastic even apart from its beneficial effects here on earth! Bruce Hamilton asked if there are any studies on what is the optimal population. Yes -- for references, see Julian Simon's book, *The Ultimate Resource*. Simon argues, and I agree, that what level is optimum depends on the state of the technological art, and that the earth's ability to accomodate more people will probably increase in the future, due to technological advances and economic growth. He argues furthermore that population growth has long-term beneficial effects, particularly increased scientific and technological advancement (as noted by some writers on the net.) That's it for now -- flame away! --Paul Torek, ..umcp-cs!prometh!paul